geometry

geometry Here came Sunday with Roger and Rafa yet again, with two faces so markedly familiar for people we don't actually know, their entrance almost sufficient, just one tepid question beneath. Could this 25th installment of one of sport's finest rivalries distinguish itself from the others and send the series in a fresh direction? Educated guesses said no. Educated guesses looked at Nadal's 4-0 record against Federer in Paris and foresaw the absence of freshness and the deepening of rote old chapters. This gorgeous ecosystem of a rivalry, born in Miami way back in 2004 with Nadal at 17, cemented at Wimbledon in 2008, did not figure to sprout any new branches or tributaries

. But then it did so. Where most of the Federer-Nadal predecessors in Paris had known few significant mood swings, this one meandered fickly. It became compelling study of countenances in a thick psychological path. The moment you would assume something, it would become untrue. First, in a departure unseen since Federer opened with a 6-1 set in the 2006 final, the match began with Nadal as Federer's shots had most of the happy geometry, his aggression worked and Nadal looked fretful, not least because his removal of his left shoe in a changeover appeared to reveal a savage blister. Curiously, the long rallies seemed to favour Federer. With Federer's level in the vicinity of vintage after his "slump" of early 2011 and Nadal's a few notches below his Paris hilt after his self-acknowledged confidence crisis, Federer up and led 5-2 with a break point that doubled as a set point, seeming untroubled when his backhand half-drop shot fluttered just wide on that. Just about then, though, the super-action-hero Nadal arrived, and Nadal began his knack for the most offensive defence in the game's history. For

geometry